Front Pages Quiet on Debate Winners, Losers

Today's Front Pages: Headline Writers Avoid Calling a Winner

Screenshot of the front page of the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Friday morning.

As we explained late last night pundits wasted little time scoring Wednesday's debate a clear-cut win for Mitt Romney. But a quick scan of the morning's front pages shows that—fortunately for President Obama—the nation's headline writers and art team largely avoided specifics in the hours between when the debate ended and when Thursday's editions went to press.

As you'll see there was the occasional talk of a "Romney doing well; Obama didn't err," but that type of punditry was largely relegated to subheads. A typical bold-faced headline, meanwhile, involved the two men "sparring," "clashing" or "debating."